


The Demon Showman

by ToastyBoi17



Category: Hazbin Hotel (Web Series), The Greatest Showman (2017)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-19 02:35:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29992593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToastyBoi17/pseuds/ToastyBoi17
Summary: Alastor has always had a knack for show business, but never expressed it. He'd always loved entertaining people. He'd also always wanted a happy and successful life, especially for Charlie, who's father always thought he'd be nothing but a street conman. But to what lengths would Alastor go to show him wrong and to make his own world?
Relationships: Alastor & Husk (Hazbin Hotel), Alastor & Mimzy (Hazbin Hotel), Alastor & Vaggie (Hazbin Hotel), Alastor/Angel Dust (Hazbin Hotel), Alastor/Charlie Magne, Cherri Bomb/Vaggie (Hazbin Hotel), Husk & Mimzy (Hazbin Hotel)
Kudos: 7





	1. This Is Where You Wanna Be

"Woooaaahhh!" The people sang, stomping their feet on the bench to the beat. A man named Alastor standing under the bleachers also moved in between the choruses. He held a cane. "Woooaaahhh! Woooaaahhh."

"Ladies and gents, this is the moment you've waited for," He sang.

"Woooaaahhh."

"Been searching in the dark, your sweat soaking through the floor."

"Woooaaahhh."

"And buried in your bones is an ache that you can't ignore. It's taking your breath, stealing your mind, and all that is real is left behind," He sang, starting to make his way around from under the bleachers. 

"Don't fight it, it's coming for you, running at you. It's only this moment, don't care what comes after. Your fever dream, can't you see it getting closer? Just surrender cause you feel the freedom taking over,"

Alastor continued to sing his way around the ring, dim lights revealing oddities of all kind in the background.

"It's fire, it's freedom, it's flooding open! It's the preacher in the pulpit and your blind devotion! There's something breaking at the brick of every wall, it's holding all that you know!"

Alastor made his way to the middle of the ring as he presented his show, fire finally revealing the full stage of circus acts and entertainment. Daggers being thrown, acrobatics in the air, a giant man, everything!

"So tell me, do you wanna go?" Alastor sang as the show members started joining in song.

"Where it's covered in all the colored lights! Where the runaways are running the night!"

"Impossible comes true, it's taking over you!"

Cherri Bomb is launched into the air by her brother who jumped off a giant man.

"Oh, this is the greatest show!" They all sang.

Alastor chimed in, "We light it up! We won't come down!" He walked over and pointed at a group of people in the audience.

"And the sun can't stop us now!" They sang. He then pointed back to Cherri and her brother in the air.

"Watching it come true, it's taking over you," He sang as most of the cast came together.

"Oh, this is the greatest show!"

He stood in the middle of everything as the people danced happily around him. He spun in a circle, happiness taking over him.

"It's everything you ever want! It's everything you ever need! And it's here right in front of you, this is where you wanna be! It's everything you ever want! It's everything you ever need! And it's here right in front of you, this is where you wanna be!"

Lights started flashing as slowly the music started fading.

"It's everything you ever want…! It's everything you ever need…! And it's here right in front of you… ! This is where you…wanna be…!"

The room is dark and quiet now. It's just Alastor Barnum, alone.

"It's everything you ever want…it's everything you ever need…and it's here right in front of you…"

The room faded as the young Alastor was pulled out of his imagination, peering into a shop of a bright red suit. He was waiting on his father to buy fabric, as he was a tailor. All Alastor could imagine was himself in that suit, being successful and rich and having more than he had at the moment, which wasn't much.

"Let's go," His father said, dragging him away from the shop and down the street towards the Hallett house. They were very wealthy and the father needed a new suit. "Alastor, hurry up! We'll miss the train!"

\---------------

As they walked up to the house, Alastor's father tried to make the boy look presentable.

"Stand up straight," He said. Then he started to try to wipe the dirt off Alastor's shirt. "Get that gunk off."

Inside the house, Alastor was assisting his father tailor Lucifer's suit. There was a girl in the background named Charlie Hallett. She seemed to be taking finishing classes and she seemed dreadfully miserable, according to Alastor.

Alastor got an idea and started to create a small device that resembled a teacup, much like the one Charlie was holding. She noticed this and watched him, curiously, while trying not to make so much attention to this.

Once the device was made, Alastor set a small rag onto the rim of the cup and mimicked Charlie raising the cup to her lips and taking a sip of tea. But when she sipped, the rag stuck to his lips and he caught it in his mouth as he laughed. This caused Charlie to burst out laughing and spit out her tea on accident. Unfortunately, her father saw this.

"Charlie, come here," Lucifer said, sternly. Charlie knew that this wasn't good, and from the looks of it, so did Alastor. She walked over, trying to avoid eye contact with Alastor. "Your dress. Is this how we've taught you to behave?"

Charlie backed away nervously for what her father might do. But before she could comprehend a response, Alastor stepped forward.

"I believe it's my fault, sir," He said. This caught both his father and Lucifer's attention. "I made her laugh."

Lucifer made his way over to Alastor, a smile on his face. Charlie was a bit confused, as her father hardly flashed a genuine smile. Especially when something goes wrong. 

"Well, thank you for your honesty," He said, almost kindly. Until he slapped Alastor as hard as he could across the face. 

Charlie gasped in surprise as Alastor's father stood in the background in silence.

"Stay the fuck away from my daughter," Lucifer warned. He then turned and dragged Charlie out of the room. She tried to look back at him, but her father kept a tight grip on her.

Alastor attempted to look at his father for an answer or sympathy, but to no avail. What was to happen to Charlie at the hands of her father?


	2. All It's Gonna Take

Later on, Alastor sat at the shoreline, still pondering what happened earlier. He didn't even notice the girl approaching him from behind until she sat down beside him. He looked at her in shock.

"How'd you get out?" He asked her, a bit dully.

"The window…" Charlie trailed as she sighed. "My dad's sending me to finishing school…I don't know what my future will be…"

After a few seconds of silence, Alastor spoke up, "I know what…"

This earned him a confused look from Charlie. The young boy just smiled and started singing.

"I close my eyes and I can see a world that's waiting up for me. That I call my own." He got up, Charlie doing the same, and he started to lead her through a forest.

"Through the dark, through the door, through where no one's been before, but it feels like home," He sang as the two approached a pair of gates.

Alastor started climbing, encouraging Charlie to follow. They peered over the gates to see a large, beautiful house with a long pathway. They both jumped over the gate and ran around to the house as Alastor continued to sing.

"They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy. They can say, they can say I've lost my mind."

He stuck his hand out to Charlie from a bush that he found. That led inside the house. She took his hand as he pulled her in.

"I don't care, I don't care if they call me crazy. We can live in a world that we design."

The two children, hand in hand, started exploring the large house.

"Cause every night I lie in bed, the brightest colors fill my head. A million dreams are keeping me awake."

They walked around and found a light. Alastor lit it and frightened Charlie, pointing it at a large lion statue. This caused them both to burst out laughing. They continued and found old toys and other things that must have belonged to the previous residents there.

"I think of what the world could be, a vision of the one I see. A million dreams is all it's gonna take! Oh, a million dreams for the world we're gonna make."

Alastor finished singing and started to take notice of how the shadows on the wall seemed to move in with the light's motion. He blew out the candle.

\-------------

"They can say, they can say it all sounds crazy," Alastor sang to himself as he was carrying old fabric at Charlie's house. It was the fateful day when Charlie would leave for finishing school. She was, but got in the carriage with her father giving her a stern look.

"They can say, they can say we've lost our minds," He sang until he looked up and saw the carriage going away. He dropped the fabric immediately and started running.

"CHARLIE! CHARLIE!" He called out to her, to no avail. He was caught by his father, while Charlie stared out the back at Alastor.

"I don't care, I don't care if they call us crazy," He sang as he continued to write to Charlie every chance he got. She would always write back, of course. "Run away to a world that we design!"

As his father got sick, Alastor continued to care for him while singing.

"Cause every night I lie in bed, the brightest colors fill my head. A million dreams are keeping me awake. I think of what the world could be. A vision of the one I see. A million dreams is all it's gonna take. Oh, a million dreams for the world we're gonna make."

Eventually, Alastor's father died and he was left to fend for himself. Struggling to steal bread just to get by.

He was thrown into a brick wall after another attempt. A lady approached him and gave him an apple, but he couldn't help but be drawn to her face. It was very abnormal. It almost resembled a child. Alastor hesitantly took the apple, not looking away from her face. She gave a kind smile and walked away.

Alastor started finding newspapers in the garbage and tried to sell them to make his own money. He didn't want to steal anymore.

"A million dreams are keeping me awake," Charlie sang from finishing school while writing to Alastor. Alastor sang with her from a street alley in the cold winter, writing back to her.

Alastor snuck the letter into the mail man's bag, as he couldn't afford to send it normally. "I think of what the world could be," He sang.

Charlie received the letter and started singing, "A vision of the one I see. A million dreams is all it's gonna take. Oh, a million dreams for the world we're gonna make."

As Alastor was reading Charlie's last letter, he heard a barker talking about a place to stay and work. He started listening and became interested.

\------------------------------

Years later, Alastor returned to the Hallett house as a grown demon. Charlie watched with anticipation and glee from her window. As walked up, before he could get to the door, Lucifer answered the door.

"Sir, I know I don't come from much, but I will take care of your daughter and give her a life as grand as this one," Alastor breathed out and smiled, finally seeing Charlie for the first time in years when she walked down the stairs.

Lucifer turned around to look at Charlie, all packed and ready to leave with Alastor Barnum. But as soon as Charlie turned to say goodbye to her mother, Lillith, Lucifer turned back to Alastor and said, "She'll be back. Sooner or later she'll get tired of your scummy life of having nothing and she'll come running back home."

Charlie and Alastor then left, happily. They laughed all the way down the path, smiling.

\----------------------------

Alastor took Charlie back to the city and they started to walk around as he sang.

"Every night, I lie in bed. The brightest colors fill my head. A million dreams are keeping me awake," He looked into a shop with couples together, dining out as they could afford to. Charlie quickly pulled him away to where they started dancing.

"I think of what the world could be, a vision of the one I see. A million dreams is all it's gonna take. Oh, a million dreams for the world we're gonna make." Alastor got down on one knee as they finished dancing.

Charlie started singing as they showed up to their very small apartment. "However big, however small, let me be a part of it all! Share your dreams with me!"

She started setting the little they had to officially make it their home. They then ventured to the rooftop that was covered with many sheets and laundry hanging to dry and they started dancing in the moonlight. 

"You may be right, you may be wrong, but say that you'll bring me along. To the world you see!" Charlie sang before Alastor joined in.

"To the world I close my eyes to see. I close my eyes to see."

Alastor walked through the maze and continued, "Cause every night I lie in bed, the brightest colors fill my head."

Charlie backed into a sheet by him, "A million dreams are keeping me awake."

He turned the sheet and smiled at his wife as he found her. "A million dreams, a million dreams!"

They continued dancing once more as they sang together, happily.

"I think of what the world could be, a vision of the one I see. A million dreams is all it's gonna take! Oh a million dreams for the world we're gonna make!"

One calm night, they're cuddling together, Alastor with a hand on Charlie's stomach. Charlie was pregnant with their first child.

"For the world we're gonna make…"


End file.
